The 70-year-old tycoon’s decision to open a glass factory in the eastern American state of Ohio in October — a rare case of jobs being exported from China to the US — triggered an outpouring of criticism on social media.

The phrase “Cao Dewang has escaped” became a hot topic, generating nearly 10 million views on the Twitter-like Weibo microblog and many comments urging China to “not let Cao Dewang run away”.

Cao’s Fuyao Glass Industry Group — a supplier to big names including Volkswagen and General Motors — claims to be the biggest exporter of auto glass in the world, reporting 2.6 billion yuan ($370 million) profits last year.

Cao defended himself in an interview with the Beijing News Wednesday, saying he “did not run and will not run. The centre of my business is in China because I’m Chinese”.

“I’m a business man and I’m doing business in the US,” he said. “I’m merely reminding the government” that taxes and labour costs are too high.